The coating of work pieces such as small parts by a galvanic or plating operation is well known for the purpose of applying protective coatings to the surfaces of components including large components and small parts for improving the material characteristics of these components and parts. The proper sequence of steps necessary for the coating operation including steps to be performed prior and after the coating itself and the apparatus used for performing these steps are very important for the efficiency and economy of such coating operations. In the coating of small parts produced by mass production procedures it is customary to use a drum type galvanizing apparatus, whereby the small parts are filled into the drum in the manner of bulk material. The drum is conventionally provided with a horizontal axis about which the drum is rotated in a galvanizing bath. The just described conventional method permits an efficient surface coating of large numbers of parts, especially small parts.
However, the use of a drum that rotates in a galvanizing bath or is filled with a galvanizing bath is not very suitable in those instances, where a high coating quality is required, because the proportion of components having a high quality coating relative to the total number of parts in a batch is relatively small, whereby the number of rejects is correspondingly high, because the electrical contact of the parts with the drum that forms an electrode in the galvanic bath remains undefined due to the bulk material nature of the small parts. As a result, the coating thickness is not uniform over the entire surface of each part. Similarly, the quality of the coating is not uniform from part to part and even on different surface portions of the same part. Conventional methods and devices also leave room for improvement with regard to coating only a defined surface area of a part and leaving the remaining surface area uncoated.